Adolf Kneser

Adolf Kneser was taught by Kronecker and also influenced by Weierstrass . After writing a thesis on algebraic functions and equations, he worked on space curves.

Kneser was appointed to the chair in Dorpat, and it was while he was holding the chair there that his son Hellmuth Kneser was born. Later Adolf Kneser was appointed to the chair of mathematics at Breslau where he spent the rest of his career.

Adolf Kneser's main work was mainly in two areas. One area was that of linear differential equations ; in particular he worked on the Sturm - Liouville problem and integral equations in general. He wrote an important text on integral equations. The second main area of his work was the calculus of variations .

... the first to introduce Hilbert 's new methods into analysis in his textbook on integral equations. He devoted himself to the task of putting general results into concrete form by applying them to the functions of mathematical physics. In a sense, he made the boundary between the old and new mathematics his field of work.

Source:School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland